the white house reports the feds have paid more than $13 billion to sandy victims. and photos from the hardest hit areas show other major improvements. here's a look at the brooklyn battery thumb. -- battery tunnel. the sea water that serged into manhattan and powder into -- poured into that tunnel, and rebuilding is underway in the breezy point section of queens new york. nearly 130 homes burned to the ground in that fire that all of us remember after the storm, and down the hard-hit show of new jersey, workers put up a new bridge where sandy destroyed the last one. it was a horrible the scene with families who hat lived or vacation thread all their lives and there's seaside heights. a new boardwalk. a reason for people to visit the site, if it turns summer again. rick live -- leventhal is down there. how are people doing? >> reporter: it's been a struggle, at you know, for men folks down here. the beach has been transformed dramatically. used to be a 12 to 15-foot dune. we were here a year ago and watched the ocean waves breaching the dune. we on the their-floor b